Horace Mann to expand kindergarten program

NORTHWEST MISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITY
Horace Mann Laboratory School Principal Sandy Seipel visits a kindergarten class last semester. The lab school, located in Brown Education Hall on the campus of Northwest Missouri State University, is adding a second kindergarten classroom scheduled to open in fall 2016.

Beginning this fall, Horace Mann Laboratory School at Northwest Missouri State University will be adding another kindergarten classroom.

According to Principal Sandy Seipel, the decision to add more kindergarten space was made after administrators and staff spent time studying the best way for the school to expand its capacity.

Horace Mann currently holds classes for kindergarten through sixth grade on the first floor of Everett W. Brown Education Hall.

After adding a third preschool classroom two years ago, the school surveyed parents about the feasibility of adding seventh- and eighth-grade classes.

Upon reviewing the results, Seipel said, school administrators decided it would be best to grow the school from the bottom up because enrollment in the upper grades wasn’t as high as the younger elementary grades. She said part of the reason also had to do with addressing the consistent waiting lists for the kindergarten class taught by Nancy Farlow.

The new kindergarten classroom will follow the same educational approach as the Phyllis and Richard Leet Center for Children, known as the Reggio Emilia Approach. The Italian model focuses on group projects, creative skills, and problem-solving development.

“We really believe in what we do, and we’re able to individualize instruction,” Seipel said.

Michelle Vaught, who currently teaches in the Leet Center, will be taking those principles to the kindergarten class.

Cindy Rouner, director of the Leet Center, said it is part of a long-term goal to get all Horace Mann classrooms working within the same educational philosophy as the preschool. She and Seipel want to see even more student-led educational opportunities than take place already.

“That’s going to look different in preschool than it does in a third grade classroom, though,” Seipel said.

When Leet Center and Horace Mann staff and students majoring in education go to Italy in March to study, they will learn more about the Reggio Emilia Approach. Seipel said she hopes to send more teachers overseas in coming years.

Because both schools are clinical teaching environments for Northwest’s Department of Professional Education, Seipel said, teachers and pre-service teachers share in evaluating curriculum and pedagogical choices.

“We want to keep on the cutting edge of education,” Seipel said.

Educators at Horace Mann and the Leet Center consider brain research in childhood development that studies how children learn. Seipel said she sees a constant need to update the educational process because children aren’t learning in the same ways as they used to.

“We’ve seen that children’s brains operate based on images and engaging with their environment,” Seipel said.

When Seipel and Rouner describe how they run the schools, they agree that it’s a constant learning process. Working together reminds them that they’re open to adapting the methods to fit the needs of their students.

In the future, Seipel said she plans to revisit adding more classes after observing the response to the new kindergarten class. Adding more classrooms in the other grades, however, will create challenges, including finding enough space, Seipel said.

“But that would be a good problem to have,” she said.

For more information about Horace Mann and the Leet Center, go to www.nwmissouri.edu/horacemann. Interested families can also call Seipel at 660.562.1234 or email [email protected].